


Merry and Bright

by zenstrike



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Christmas Fluff, It’s Christmas, It’s fluffy, M/M, Post-Canon, i wrote this pre s8 so no spoilers, it’s mushy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 10:06:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17057774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenstrike/pseuds/zenstrike
Summary: Keith with Lance and Lance’s family on Christmas Eve.The stars align.





	Merry and Bright

**Author's Note:**

> this is a secret santa present for oblueboio for our discord’s secret santa! he asked for klance fluff! and i! made this!!! akdlfsjalsjdfsd

The noise and laughter with Lance’s family was—a little overwhelming.

Keith’s holidays with his father, and then later with Shiro and at the Garrison, were always—quieter. No less loving, he thought, but definitely quieter. He had quieter families. He had cozy mornings with his dad watching snow on the T.V. like it was an otherworldly thing he’d never see, and he had dust and sand between his toes and in his hair when he watched the sun rise and set with his dad. He had dinner with Shiro, and unwrapping presents with brightly coloured paper that always made him feel a little self-conscious and very grateful, with Shiro snapping photos of the two of them and Adam winding tinsel around Shiro’s shoulders. Quiet. Peaceful. Colourful.

Here, he had glitter in his hair and two papercuts from helping Lisa and Luis wrap some last minute gifts and a little bit of lipstick smeared on his face from all the kisses he kept getting smashed against his cheeks without anyone even asking. Conversation flitted loudly between languages and Lance’s laughter was the loudest of them all and the twins kept taking turns trying to climb Keith when he wasn’t paying enough attention.

The dog barked at him twice. Pounced once. And then it and Kosmo ran outside to chase circles around each other.

Someone kept shoving food into his hands.

It was probably Lance.

“It was worse when they were all younger,” Lance’s father told Keith at one point and dumped some rum into Keith’s drink (Keith thought it might be eggnog). “I’m just waiting for the rest of my future grandchildren, now.”

“Oh,” Keith said and took a small sip of his drink and Lance’s father slapped him on the back and meandered over to the twins who were “redecorating” the Christmas tree.

Lance was caught between his sisters and his eyes were bright and maybe he wasn’t laughing right then but Keith could hear his laughter like bells, like jingling Christmas bells echoing around Keith’s head and filling his ears and heart—

Keith took a larger sip of his drink. Definitely eggnog. Too much rum. 

Marco sidled up to him, lanky and tall and towering a little even over Keith. 

“Having fun?” Marco asked. 

Neither of them looked away from Lance. Keith twitched, just a little.

“Yup,” he said.

It was their third Christmas together. It was Keith’s first with Lance’s family.

Lance leaned up from between his sisters and turned that bright smile and those bright eyes on Keith. And Keith twitched. And Marco huffed.

Keith smiled.

Lance was across the room in three strides, tugging the eggnog-thing from Keith’s hands and slipping in between Marco and Keith.

“You’re protective,” Marco said.

“Let’s go outside,” Lance said.

Marco rolled his eyes but wandered away to help Nadia and Sylvio with their Tree Destruction, and Lance leaned close to Keith and hooked their arms together.

Keith’s smile grew.

Lance sipped at the drink and tugged Keith away, through the dimly lit hall leading to the kitchen, passed his laughing parents and Lisa sitting on the counter, and through the back door. “There’s too much rum in this,” Lance muttered but kept drinking and Keith kept smiling and they slid into their shoes and then the door was swinging shut with a creak and a whistle behind them and the whole, dark, Christmas Eve night was open in front of them.

The stars sparkled above. And Lance, right next to Keith, shone.

It was all so suddenly quiet Keith’s ears popped.

Kosmo rolled over on a pile of snow and dead grass. The dog leapt at him and then howled together.

Lance laughed and leaned his head against Keith’s shoulder and Keith melted back against him.

They swapped the eggnog-rum-infusion for a while, their fingers brushing and Keith’s cheeks burning with a combination of chill and blush. When he tilted his head he could brush his nose against the softness of Lance’s hair, and the press of their arms together and the drag of his own sweater against his neck all made him feel very present. Alive. Small and huge.

They finished the drink and Lance licked the rim of the cup and they laughed together. The dog and Kosmo had finished wrestling and were laying on their stomachs, panting at the sky. Kosmo seemed less wolf and more hound, in the dark and in the Christmas cheer. His fur mussed and dirty and with streaks of drool from Lance’s family’s dog.

“What’s its name?” Keith said quietly, taking the empty cup from Lance and letting it dangle from his fingers.

“Sophie,” Lance said, and Keith could hear his smile. “ _ Her _ name is Sophie.”

“She’s nice.”

Lance hummed.

They stayed like that together, wobbling slightly in the half-hearted winter wind, and they watched the dogs and listened to the laughter from inside. Keith wondered when someone would come and find them. He wondered what else the night would bring. He felt very full, and warm.

“Thanks for inviting me,” he said into Lance’s hair.

“Thanks for coming.”

Like he could ever be anywhere else.

Lance pulled away then, untangling their arms and hopping from the low deck. Sophie and Kosmo lowered their great doggy heads and turned their lolling tongues towards him. Both tails started wagging. Slap slap slap, against the ground and each other. Lance bent to rub them both, cooing quietly so Keith could barely hear him.

“She makes him look huge,” Keith called, and set the cup down on the deck for the moment. He hopped after Lance, his shoes sliding in the snow and the ice and the little bit of melted winter.

“He  _ is _ huge.”

Keith supposed that was huge. Sometimes he looked at Kosmo and could only remember him as a pup.

Sometimes he looked at Lance and remembered the gangly teenager he had first met—or, met again, with his flailing limbs and his fast mouth—or, met again when Keith had crawled his way back out of the Abyss and saw Lance seeing him—or, met again in the rubble of the aftermath of their war and seeing the simple way they could take each other’s hands for the first time—

Sometimes, Keith looked at Lance and could only remember, but Lance always knew how to ground him.

Lance turned away from the dog and the wolf and looked at Keith with a tilt of his head and a twitch of a smile.

“How’re you holding up?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

Lance waved a hand. “I know you,” he scoffed. “Is your brain melted?”

“My brain’s fine,” Keith grumbled, but he smiled all the same and he knew in his heart of hearts that this was exactly the moment he had been waiting for.

Maybe he had thought it would come in front of Lance’s family, his parents, his brothers and sisters and niece and nephew. Maybe he had thought Lance would want to share that—this—with them. But with the warmth of the house and Lance’s family and the Christmas lights still dancing on his skin, and the whole universe opening up wide above them, Keith knew—

Well.

He just knew.

“I’m happy,” he said.

Lance tilted his head the other way. “Uh huh,” he said. “What’s up with you?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re smiling a lot.”

“I’m  _ happy _ .”

And that made Lance beam so huge he seemed brighter than the moon. Than the sun. “Good,” he said and smiled some more when Keith took his hand, twisting their fingers together.

Another breeze, cold and slipping under Keith’s clothes, made them shiver together.

“Let’s go back inside,” Lance said. “We can find more rum.”

“Hang on.”

Lance blinked at him, and Keith kept smiling, and smiling, and smiling, and he realized that this is what being  _ sure _ felt like. He squeezed Lance’s hand. Lance’s smile started to fade a little.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing,” Keith lied and forgot just for a moment how his legs worked and he forgot how questions worked so he just pulled the gold band from his pocket and watched Lance’s eyes widen and said: “Marry me.”

And maybe Lance forgot how answers worked because he pressed his face to Keith’s neck and he laughed until he was crying and they both marvelled at how wonderful the ring looked on his finger.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> jeojafklsd;dksfjfa;fdjas
> 
> merry christmas


End file.
